Chancellor reveals life sciences growth package to boost sector

A £650 million package to boost the UK’s life sciences sector and drive forward the government’s priority to grow the economy has been unveiled by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt.

The ‘Life Sci for Growth’ package brings together 10 different policies including £121 million to improve commercial clinical trials to bring new medicines to patients faster, up to £48 million of new money for scientific innovation to prepare for any future health emergencies, £154 million to increase the capacity of the UK’s biological data bank further aiding scientific discoveries that help human health, and up to £250 million to incentivise pension schemes to invest in our most promising science and tech firms.

The Chancellor’s £650 million package also includes plans to relaunch the Academic Health Science Network as Health Innovation Networks to boost innovation by bringing together the NHS, local communities, charities, academia and industry to share best practice. 

Life Sciences is one of the UK’s most successful sectors, worth over £94 billion to the UK economy in 2021, a 9% increase on the year before. As a key industry driving UK growth the Chancellor has identified it as a focus for government, ensuring regulation aids innovation, government funding is targeted at vital projects and investment is diverse. This also helps to deliver the Science and Technology framework through reforming regulation, boosting investment and driving up talent and skills.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said "Our Life Sciences sector employs over 280,000 people, makes £94 billion for the UK each year and produced the world’s first covid vaccine.

"These are businesses that are growing our economy while having much wider benefits for our health – and this multi-million pound investment will help them go even further."

The package was first revealed to the UK’s Life Science Council this morning by the Chancellor at a meeting at No10 Downing Street, where it was welcomed by the CEOs of global life sciences companies and industry representatives.

The package follows the Treasury’s Life Sciences Connect conference which the Chancellor hosted on 29 March where he heard first-hand from senior industry representatives about the opportunities and challenges they are facing.

Policy Announcements

The announcements improve the regulatory environment for Life Sciences companies and our approach to UK commercial clinical trials. As part of this, the Chancellor has committed to make it easier for revolutionary healthcare products to get to NHS patients by cutting the regulatory burden of approving clinical trials, and committed £121 million, made up of new and existing funding, to speed up clinical trials and improve access to real-time data via new Clinical Trial Acceleration Networks. This comes in response to publications of the Lord O’Shaughnessy review on commercial clinical trials and Dame Angela McLean’s review on the life science regulatory system.

‘Life Sci For Growth’ commits to invest £154 million from UK Research and Innovation to upgrade the UK Biobank capabilities, the biomedical database containing the in-depth genetic information of half a million UK citizens. The money will go towards a new facility at Manchester Science Park, a new Hub to help SMEs collaborate with industry and academia and better IT to accommodate multi-disciplinary data.

A call for proposals has been released on the government’s Long-Term Investment for Technology and Science (LIFTS) initiative, which will offer £250 million of government support to spur the creation of new vehicles for pension schemes to invest in the UK’s high-growth science and technology businesses, benefitting the retirement incomes of UK pension savers and driving the growth of critical sectors like Life Sciences.

The government has also signalled its ongoing commitment to the transformational new East West Rail line between Oxford and Cambridge. This region is a globally renowned hub of science, research and innovation, and the railway will support job creation and growth at towns and cities along the route. It has announced its preferred route alignment for the third section of the railway between Bedford and Cambridge, including a direct link to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

The manufacturing arm of the UK’s life sciences sector is also set for a funding boost thanks to three new pots to bolster the country’s health resilience. A Biomanufacturing Fund worth up to £38 million in new funding has been announced to incentivise investment and improve the UK’s resilience to any future pandemics, via a competitive process to distribute grants. This comes on top of a further £6.5 million made up of new funding and funding from Innovate UK, to ensure that the Life Sciences sector continues to have the right people it needs to deliver its high skilled work. £10 million new cash has also been announced to fund projects to drive innovation in cutting edge medicine manufacturing that can bolster the UK’s health resilience, such as those which use nucleic acid technology and intracellular drug delivery to help improve vaccines, as part of Innovate UK’s ‘Transforming Medicines Manufacturing Programme’.

The government has announced that Sterling Pharma Solutions are the latest recipient of funding through the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund. This announcement follows the first tranche of four grants from the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund in March 2023 and the Medicines and Diagnostics Manufacturing Transformation Fund (MDMTF).

Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said "This investment is another significant step in harnessing UK innovation to help cut waiting lists - one of the government’s five priorities - and build a stronger NHS.

"We will take forward Lord O’Shaughnessy’s recommendations to speed up the delivery of clinical trials and boost patient involvement in research, so people getting NHS care can benefit from cutting-edge treatments faster, supported by £121 million in government funding.

"We’re also accelerating research into mental health, backed by over £42 million of investment in clinical research centres across the UK – including in Birmingham and Liverpool - to improve the speed and accuracy of diagnosis and increase the use of technology for treatment."

Jeremy Hunt also committed to increasing lab space through pledging to reform planning rules to help scientists. Proposals including local authorities taking greater account of R&D needs in their planning decisions.

In addition, £42.7 million for the Mental Health Mission will go towards delivering treatments to patients, setting up a new centre in Liverpool to understand how mental, physical and social conditions interlink, and a site in Birmingham to support research and novel treatments for early intervention in psychosis, depression and children. £10 million for the Addiction Mission will go to support UK organisations and researchers to create novel pharmaceuticals, MedTech, and digital tools to improve treatment and aid recovery for people with opioid and cocaine addictions.

The Chancellor has hosted four similar events to the Treasury’s Life Sciences Connect conference throughout 2023, each one focused on his key growth industries; digital tech, green industries, creative industries and advanced manufacturing.

Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI) CEO, Peter Ellingworth said "The range of announcements and their emphasis on HealthTech are very welcome. I am pleased to see that the contribution of our industry has been acknowledged in each of them.

"Critical for the continued supply of technology to NHS patients and the competitiveness of our country, will be the approach taken to the regulation of medical devices and diagnostics. This was recognised last year by the Life Sciences Council and led to the creation of an Advisory Group. This builds on that group’s aligned proposals published in March, and the Chancellor’s ambition for the recognition of approvals from other, trusted jurisdictions.

"Collectively, this package represents significant progress to create a system that values innovation and affords our citizens safe, timely access to life saving and enhancing technology.

"We look forward to continuing to support the work of the LSC Advisory Group, and helping to deliver the recommendations of the Pro-Innovation Regulation of Technologies Review, through initiatives such as secondments to a Regulator with an enhanced and welcome focus on HealthTech."